It is often heard said that ‘Diets and Health starts from the Kitchen’. This statement is quite right. When you have a kitchen full of unhealthy high calorie and junk stuff you are most likely to consume it. On the other hand if you have healthy stuff in your kitchen you are most likely to eat that. This is just a matter of convenience.

Burning more calories then you eat is the easiest way when it comes to weight loss. Eating less and starving to lose weight is not a healthy practice. This may work for a short time but this leads to cravings and you are most likely to put more weight than actually lost. For the proper functioning of our body we need to have an adequate calorie intake by means of food. Going on a starvation mode slows down the metabolism. Consuming foods that speed up metabolism is a healthy way of losing weight and this is where negative calorie foods come into the picture.

What is a negative calorie food? Negative calorie foods are foods which use more calories to digest than the calories food actually contains. In other words, some foods actually require more energy during their breakdown and digestion for cellular energy then they contain. For example a piece of chocolate cake consists of 450 calories may require only 150 calories to digest and adds 300 calories to our body fat. On the other hand a raw piece of celery which has only 5 calories would take more calories in the chewing and digestion process resulting in a loss of body fat which means the more you eat this sort of food the more weight you would lose. To put it differently, the body has to work hard in order to extract calories from these foods giving these foods a tremendous natural fat burning advantage for achieving weight loss without starving. The negative calorie diet (also referred to as zero calorie diet) is very helpful in fast weight loss by burning up the excessive stored fat in the body.

So if you want to stay healthy cut down some weight exercise regularly even if it is for only 15 minutes, cut on the Junk stuff and convenience foods and pack your refrigerator and kitchen with healthy foods. Also learn to exercise restraint at the sight of unhealthy foods which would add to your weight. A list of negative calorie foods are given below.

Fruits and vegetables make up a majority of the negative calorie foods. These types of food have a high nutrient value made up of vitamins, minerals, complex carbohydrates and fiber. Here is a list of some Negative Calorie Vegetables and Fruits

Negative Calorie Vegetables : Asparagus, Beet Root, Broccoli, Cabbage, Carrot, Cauliflower, Celery, Chicory, Hot Chili ,Cucumber, Garden cress, Garlic, Lettuce, Onion, Radish, Spinach, Turnip, Tomato, Zucchini, Green Beans

Negative Calorie Fruits: Apple, Blueberries, Cantaloupe, Cranberry, Grapefruit, Honeydew, Lemon, Mango, Orange, Papaya, Peach, Pineapple, Raspberry, Strawberry, Tangerine, Watermelon